It’s every baker’s worst nightmare. You’ve spent the proper time planning and gathering ingredients. You’ve double checked your oven temperature, and given special care to properly grease and flour your cake pan. You put your beautiful batter in the oven and pull it out once it’s finished- just to have it sink!

Is there anything more frustrating?

There could be a few different reasons for this- but all of them lead to a very frustrating situation! But don’t fret! There are still ways to remedy the situation!

Swirl. I once made a Taco Bell cake for my brother-in-law’s birthday. He LOVES Taco Bell, and I thought it would be fun to try and put the Taco Bell logo on the top of a layer cake. Unfortunately I had some MAJOR sinking, and I was baking last minute so I didn’t have time to bake another one. After some thinking and a little creativity, I decided to put the logo on the side and do a swirl design on the top of the cake to help camouflage the sinking. I’m no professional, but I thought it turned out great all things considered!

Turn it upside down and fill it up! If you’re baking a smaller layer cake, just flip it over and use the flat bottom for the top of your cake! Use extra cake scraps, cookie bits, etc to fill the empty space so that you don’t sacrifice the stability of your cake. You may not have clean layers when you cut into it, but it will sure taste good! And no one looking at the outside will be able to tell it’s upside down.

Decorate with goodies. Topping your cake with a variety of goodies is very trendy right now- so embrace that sunken cake! Top it with macarons, donuts, cookies, candies- whatever fits the theme of your cake (and whatever you have on hand!). I can promise no one will notice if your cake is dipping down when it’s covered in tons of delicious decor!

Add lots of frosting! If you’re like my mom, you’d rather eat the frosting anyway ;). And some extra frosting in the middle is the perfect way to disguise the sunken middle of your cake!

Level. Sometimes you can get by with simply leveling your cake. If the sinking is pretty minimal and you don’t need your cake to be at a certain height, just use a knife or cake leveler to make your cake level. Freeze it for 10- 15 minutes, add a crumb coat and freeze for another 10-15 minutes, and you can frost it without worrying about pulling it apart!

Rebake. It’s ok to give yourself permission to do it again! Maybe time or ingredients won’t allow this, and if that’s the case, it is what it is. But if it’s just your pride holding you back, rebake it! A couple weeks ago I baked a cake and it completely sank in the middle. I sat there in the kitchen stewing. My husband came in and gently told me to just rebake it! He offered to help with some chores so that I would have the time to rebake. At first, I just felt frustrated and acted like a martyr- “It’s too late! That’s such a waste of ingredients! I’ll just have to deal with it.” But after a few minutes I calmed down and realized baking is like any other hobby- it takes practice! And just like with painting or sewing- there might be a few mess-ups and you might have to invest in some extra supplies. The only way to perfect an art- is practice!

Have you ever had to save a sunken cake? I’d love to hear your stories!